Star Trek Questions?

Question

Klingons and Romulans both had cloaking devices. The Defiant had one in DS9. WHy not just replicate them?
Plus..why not sneak up on the Enterprise cloakced, Uncloak, instantly teleport the bridge team into space, and take over the bridge?

Worf and Chief O'Brien are both on TNG and DS9so it HAD to be the same time as TNG

Answer 1

First of all, to the other responder who said that DS9 was long time after the enterprise was decommissioned... no it is not. The beginning of DS9 starts as a spinoff of the enterprise who docks at the station before leaving for another mission.

Now to the question.... the replicators have never been able to do extremely complicated or powerful devices. It takes a great amount of energy to work a cloaking device and the sophistication is too much for a replicator to produce. And like the other person said, the replicator does have safeguards to prevent the replication of anything that could be used as a weapon or is extremely complicated.

As for sneaking up on the enterprise, you can't exactly do that because you would have to penetrate their shields. The shields would be able to detect a cloaked ship within transporter range.

And as one of the characters mentioned on the episode where those two human races were fighting in civil war with heart beacons to tell if they were close to the enemy said the Enterprise is like a fortress.

Lastly, you teleport to the abandoned bridge, but half the ship is still under enemy operation. Jordi in engineering isn't going to let you warp around on his engines!

Answer 2

Some objects and devices can't be replicated in Star Trek's universe because either the molecular structure is not known or there's a replicator failsafe that will prevent certain items (such as poisons and likely complex machines) from being manufactured. The Federation does come across as a little self-righteous by refusing to develop a cloaking device -- but who says they haven't? (Re: USS Pegasus) -- but like present-day stealth technology, it's possible that the lag time between developing a better cloaking device and a counter-agent (better detection methods) is so narrow that the Federation doesn't see it as worth the bother.

Even with a cloaking device, just sneaking up on the Enterprise is not practical because excess thrust and powering up weapons and transporters would show up as an energy surge even through the cloak, which would have to sacrifice some power anyway to maintain maximum readiness. Who wants to start a war with the Federation, anyway, these days?

Answer 3

DS9 took place long after the Enterprise was decommisioned, so they weren't able to replicate unknown technology; and proper use of the shields would prevent unauthorized tranport of personnel.

Answer 4

cause it will ruin the whole show if that happened